Poker Ghetto

In the game of poker there are all kinds of Poker odds. Poker odds commonly refer to the odds a player is going to win a pot, but can also be the odds a player is going to win a poker tournament and sometimes will refer to the poker odds that are just the oddballs that play poker like Mike Matasow. Let’s take a look at some of the more conventional types of poker odds.
When talking strategy, poker odds invariably will relate to pot odds or implied odds. Pot odds are the odds a player will win a pot or the odds the size of the pot is laying a player. If the pot odds are right often time the player will make a decision to enter a pot. Sometimes the pot odds might dictate that a player should fold. This type of poker odds can get quite complicated depending on the number of players in the pot. Sometimes even calculating the pots odds can be a game of partial information.
For example, say there are five players to the flop, each having put in $20 (including the blinds to make it easier). The first player bets $50 making the pot $150. The second player is on a flush draw and sees that he is going to get at least 3 to 1 on his money if he calls. He decides if he hits his flush he will win the pot. So he wants the correct odds to chase his possible hand. If he follows the correct odds every time long run he’ll come out ahead. Only problem is he has to also consider if his calling will induce the others into the pot and increase his pot odds for him to hits his outs or not. In essence, he could wind up calling $50 to win $350 if the three players behind him also call. Or his calling might induce folds, and he’s putting in $50 to win $150.
They do call and he hits one of his outs on the turn. Problem is it pairs the board. He then has to determine what the poker odds of one of his opponents making a set or two pair on the flop and turning a full house. He might decide this is unlikely for most of the players as those hands probably would have tried to push out flush draws instead of just calling bets.
So now his decision is to take into account a variety of poker odds. What are the odds his opponents just made trips or two pair? What does he have to bet to not give them the odds to chase a full house? If the first player bets $350 doubling the pot to $700 that player needs to figure out what calling or raising will do to the odds of the possible hands he’s facing.
In poker odds, the best strategy is to create situations where the odds of something happening favor you vs. favoring your opponent. So, with multiple players in the pot there is always calculations and recalculations, and trying to anticipate what someone else will do. Anybody that says the math in poker is elementary might be underselling it a bit as multi-way pots created multi-faceted and complicated decision trees.
Poker odds get more complicated when you factor in stack sizes and implied odds. Let’s say our player is looking at deep stacks when he’s making a decision and that could alter his conclusion on what to do. For example, in a game with deep stacks preflop, it’s sometimes wise for a player to call a big preflop raise with a small pair, if he thinks or even knows his opponent has a big pair. While the raise could price him out of hitting a set or overcoming the 4 to 1 advantage his opponent holds over him, he’d understand that if does hit his set it would more than make up for it if his opponent’s stack is deep enough. Conventional wisdom says that an opponent should have a stack 10 to 11 times the size of the preflop bet to make it wise to call with an under pair in a full ring game if you know he has an over pair. This formula takes into account how many times a player will miss the set, both players will hit a set, and other painful situations.